I wish someone had have mentioned the problems with the Oase Bio Style filter before I bought two of them. They are such trash that they both failed within a month of installation. I could keep wasting postage on getting them replaced, or I can cut my losses and try something different. I'm looking at getting one of the Fluval x07 series cannisters. I have a Fluval FX 8, and it has been working like a champ on my turtle tank, which has one dinner plate sized Asian flapshell turtle in it, who is a very messy boy. It has kept the water in his tank crystal clear for over a year now with only the prescribed scheduled maintenance. It's simply the best filter I have, so I'm hoping that Fluval's smaller canisters for smaller tanks will do as well. There are no unusually messy fish in either of the two tanks I'm needing filters for, so I'm hopeful. If anyone has any comments about the Fluval x07 filter series either pro or con, I'd love to hear them!

Heater failure is the worst, it can be absolutely devastating to an entire tank. I’m glad they are taking the issue seriously.

I think it's a sign of a honest business,nice to see in todays world

Cory's commitment to quality and the co-ops refund policy will always have me purchasing from the Aquarium Co-op!! I hope the heaters come back soon!!! ❤️❤️❤️

I think it's a positive. Integrity is rare these days. If a company knows of an issue with a product and does nothing to make it right, they will have no brand loyalty from customers. Integrity equals brand loyalty.

Had a heater crap out after 11 months, they sent me a new one, no questions asked, just a photo of the defective heater. Props to them for that.

I had a Co-op heater go bad within a month of installing it. I was sent a replacement immediately and it has worked okay. So, I can’t find fault with the replacement policy, and I think it is commendable they are owning up to and addressing the issue. Now I am a little leery of this one though.

I bought 3 of the 100w heaters from AC and love the heaters. Over the pst month one of the heaters in a tank near my bed started making this thumping sound. I didn’t know it was the heater, I thought it was the Matten filter and air in the pipes. Sometimes a snail will block flow and make noise. Well after a good week of sleepless nights I got into the tank and found when I unplugged the heater the sound stopped. So I emailed AC and they instantly took care of me. I had no idea this was happening. Kudos to them for being so honest! I will for sure continue to buy from them. Hopefully the other two don’t have issues.

Cory mentioned that the CO2 parts were 5:50 discontinued partly due to many users didn't know how to set it up. The customer return rate for satisfaction was added to the 5 percent threshold

I think this is a reflection of Cory’s integrity and good business sense. My 50-watt heater died about 13 months after purchase, and that’s when I found out they were discontinued. I found an identical heater on Amazon, so I got a couple of spares. I work at home, so I can monitor closely. Heaters have always made me nervous 😮

I had alot of the co op heaters fail the customer service was amazing though they replaced several of them i loved their heaters sad they didn't work out but the way they handled it was great. I have no clue what heater will be my next go too just happy I invested in the inkbirds for my tanks 😅

I appreciate that they are taking the heater failures seriously, but in my dreams it would result in a better heater instead of not being able to buy one from them. I appreciate that level of transparency. I also realize that scaling up production quantity and speed can lead to a higher product failure rate in general though that may or may not be the issue. My first 100w AC heater failed after 2 years of use and though I would have changed a thing or 2 about the design, I preferred it to the several other heaters I have used. I have 4 others in use and 1 backup not yet used. Sad that I will have to find a new heater brand after liking this one enough to buy 5. By the way, I did not report it as a failure as I am satisfied with the life of the product and it just failed last week at almost exactly the 2 year mark. And the failure was that the unit stopped heating which for my tanks is actually not a big issue - more one of comfort than necessity as it failed in the spring and not during a winter outage.

It's far more positive than not that The Coop is so transparent. Your point that it should have been caught is spot on too. I think my background is similar to your own with regards to quality assurance. The jump in the failure rate will nearly always spike severely when going from a prototype batch (often hand made by the engineering team) to full mass production quantities. The Coop may have been a bit naive in not appreciating this about the manufacturing world - especially dealing with China. Decent quality can be made in China but not by default. When you negotiate a contract they used to ask, "How long do you want it to last?" The price they will quote - and consequently the quality of goods you will receive are indexed to one another to meet the factory's profit model. They can't let you have half a container's worth of heaters that will all last for five to ten years then not order any more of the "quality" stock for 18 to 36 months. The factory may be counted upon to spit out trailer loads and flood the online market with *white box* knock off junk versions for cut rate pricing under random seller names if there's demand in the market.

I agree on the pos/neg balance. There is a huge scale up tax on businesses expanding from tiny scale to small scale because the small scale requires exceptionally more technical and professional knowledge than the tiny scale. Of course, I’m selling my book, but I’ve seen it over and over: there is a level of scale up in the operation where you have to figure out how to fit professional, technical expertise into your operation or you will miss stuff. The fact that you’ve hit 97.5% over and over again in the past won’t matter because the world at scale just doesn’t work the same way. Recognizing this is rare. Recognizing this publicly with candor-ish-ness is nonexistent.

(aka JimmyP) You have become my go to guy when it comes to product reviews and discussion. It's greatly appreciated. Thanks!

They are simply ordering stuff from manufacturers with cobranding. They’re not product engineers or designers. They have no ability to test anything to the level you or I or others would expect from a manufacturer. These manufacturers sell to anyone, and are constantly emailing everyone in the industry. It’s all about volume. If aquarium co-op cared, they’d be issuing a recall. Reconsider selling products they can’t guarantee from suppliers they haven’t visited personally. They are not what they once were.

I think this is a big positive. I have never had a problem with any Aquarium Co-op equipment, but i love that they would stand behind it if there were a problem. Oase on the other hand, i bought 6 heaters from them and 2 arrived not working and getting replacements was a nightmare.

Good commentary. I think it is a positive. Coop is an honest company. I like the heaters.

I still have Danner Skilter and Marineland Millennium HOB in use for years. Old time Whisper filters too.

Customer maintenance - need to shake out debris from inside heater regularly. I like the heaters.

I really appreciate this video, it sheds light on several different sides of the situation, that those of us without business/manufacturing backgrounds might not consider/realize otherwise.

Loved my bio wheels connected to hot magnums,wish I still had them

Got really used to seeing the temperature readout on the coop heater. Very disappointed that it is no longer available. Back to the questionable heaters of the past. What a shame.😕 However I think they did the right thing by discontinuing a poor product. Better still how about improving it. I would pay more for an improved model.

a 5% return rate is pretty average across most product types i've dealt with, but that is often a combination of defective units, damage in shipping, user error, missing parts, unclear instructions, and customers who decide after they get it that they just want their money back. the biggest risk a company takes when using chinese or any overseas manufacturing is quality control, the best way to deal with it is to hire an independent QC expert to verify a production run meets standards before it is shipped to the US. Often, if left to their own devices, manufacturers will cut corners and it can absolutely destroy a brand if not dealt with immediately. Heaters are always a problem, CO2 regulators are expensive and a challenge for beginners to set up correctly, props to CoOp for pulling them, two examples of products that are way harder to nail than something simple like a sponge filter.

5%? Holy Cow! No disrespect to Aquarium Co-op but that is a 50,000ppm. As a Quality Assurance manager, I would rightly lose my job if any of my products had a 50,000ppm. That has nothing to do with scaling up. It has everything to do with poor advanced quality planning and associated reliability testing. My guess is that the manufacture made some unauthorized changes to process or materials or lied about testing. Just my two cents. Thanks for sharing. Cheers. p.s. Higher failure rates are typically tolerated from Chinese manufactures because of their low cost. I see it in my industry it is an apples vs oranges argument with purchasing departments. They want U.S. based manufactures to meet off shore prices but still maintain higher quality and reliability.

I think it's a positive. They are open and honest about it and they are trying to make it better, it's not on purpose and it's not money grubbing. Integrity and commitment to your business as something other than a vehicle for generating wealth is admirable, imo.

I have one of these heaters that works perfectly! Too bad they have to pull these heaters off the shelves. I was planning on buying another one for a future tank project.

Im very mixed on the heaters. I personally had around a 30% failure rate, but loved that it would notify me if there was a problem. If a normal heater has issues, you may not notice until something catastrophic happens. I have like 3 in the box still and even bought one of the AQQA copies to test and its running fine a few months in.

Bentley So I believe from an email i got from the Co-op they had actually 7% failure rate. And I guess Im a lucky one as I have 3 of these and all still working fine.

I have a old tetra whisper hob. It's 25 years old I'm still using it never changed impeller thats good quality.

What a great topic for a guy like you to speak on. Very well put. They are under a spotlight and are thusly held to a higher standard. They have always taken pride in their warranty tho, so it still feels genuine.

They need to pull their ammonia test strips off the market also. I bought 2 bottles of them on the advice of my LFS, and found through fairly rigorous testing that they completely failed to detect high levels of ammonia. My fish could have died as a result. I wrote a 1-star product review detailing all of this on their site and they blocked the review from being published.

One of my two 100w heaters failed and starting flashing in less than year - refunded half my money since its now discontinued. Really like the design too bad didnt work better. AS for testing I had 2 100 in discus tank kept and 84F the one that broke was one nearest window and was turning on and off a lot more.

So here is my take on it (for context I buy aquarium co-op products but have a giant axe to grind with something they do). Cory systematically acts bragadocious about his brand and product and how they go through testing and stand behind their product and their product is so awesome possum that while it is substantially more expensive... it is the "quality" is what you pay for. And then returns start coming and it is ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow... followed by "yeah... we are pulling this because we care and yada yada". Ok but what happened to being the best and best tested and all the rigorous bru ha ha he keeps talking about? Dare I saaaaaay.... it has a bad look when Cory spends so much time trashing amazon brands while things he says are "on another level" do not get advertised lifespan/ quality advertised. Pulling a product implies not that product has failed but that R&D has failed. I literally just (in last 20 mins) unpacked his LARGEST air sponge x 4 with extension things. I put all 4 in the stock tank. Stock tank is filling right now. Every single one keeps toppling over because airline gives it just the slightest of tugs and bam... That is failed 4/4. I mentioned in a long winded post on Co-op's video about Dean kicking and jumping on their lights video about how normal people dont really care about it all that much nor is it an epidemic of people dropping lights and jumping on them. Next product they are developing is a weighted air stone. Let's just get the existing product not topple over by itself first before we go there please. Failures could be seen both ways and every time co-op product gets pulled... it adds even further fire and fuel to folks who are not that fond of aquarium co-op. I am on my 4th order with them but would truly appreciate if they scaled back the bragging and the trashing because it is not a good look when own products fail that they bragged about.

My heater failed, broke it open and found ramshorns fill the cavity, don’t know why the new heater is also incased, but the ramshorns don’t go in there

The only thing I've ever thought of specifically buying from Aq Co Op are the air pumps with battery back up. I'm in southern California we've had summertime rolling blackouts in years past. Luckily we're not an extreme weather area with storms that knock out power frequently so I've not had issues, but I think a built in battery is definitely a good thing. Better than buying mini air pumps with usb plugs and those rechargeable battery blocks. Other than being tempted by those air pumps, I'm on an extremely limited income so I buy off brand or no brand products or used stuff at club auctions.

Re bomb proof products. When I was a kid my family ran Metaframe Dynaflow HOB filters on our aquariums. They were simple, effective and durable. The filters lasted 10 years plus.

Mine just failed day before yesterday. Its stuck on. thing got up to 97 when it was set to 80 in my Rams tank. Sad times because I loved the heater. I wonder if I can put a probe on it and let that regulate its power since it wont turn off itself.

My 100 watt co-op failed after about a year and a half. Co-Op gave me a gift card because they discontinued the heaters, which I was disappointed about (I was just going to buy a new one). I bought the heater because of the digital display which was convenient, and the temperature on the display always matched the thermometer I had in the aquarium. I feel sorry for the failure rate. I know Cory wouldn't put something out that he didn't feel confident about, but things happen. I put my Eheim heater back into the tank. I love those heaters, too....they really last, but honestly I hope Co-op comes up with a new digital display soon. OH... .imy 50 watt co-op is still working well. I'm sure I'm not half as disappointed as Cory is right now. He runs a great business.

Great points. I too was in the software world years ago. The broad release of a new software package was too often considered a "Beta" (not the fish) test of the product. Not a good model but nothing tests a product like the beating it gets in a broad release. Auto and airplane industries, where lives can be lost, goes for a close to zero failure, and, well ... Boeing... I loved this Co-Op heater when it was first released. I promoted it on my channel, then experienced my own failures and ultimately pulled the video. That's disheartening about the Oase HOB. I wonder if they farmed out assembly of their HOBs like Eheim did when they stopped making their heaters in Germany and experienced a ton of issues forcing them to bring the full process back in house? By the way, I have had good luck with my old MarineLand. Sometimes the wheels don't spin, but I don't care too much about that. At the end of the day, IMO, Aquarium Co-Op is learning how to mass market products which is a new world for them. Not to make excuses for an obviously defective product. I still trust Cory, Zenzo, Candi and the team at the Co-Op and believe that they are trying to do the right thing by us. Thanks for the honest discussion.

I feel you on the filter bit. I had a Eheim going for 40 years and a few months straight.... Mind you it was not a new one when i got it.... On heaters. Got to keep a good eye on those funny thing is the best one i have had in years now is also by far the cheapest.

The H.O.T.Magnum filter was a dream, I had three of them and the only problem I had was a small change in the production size from the first one till the last one I had. But I just couldn’t interchange the parts was the only problem. Yes if you get one,that’s gold!

Of all the aquarium gear I've used over the decades, heaters are the least reliable by far (#2 is canister filters). It's not a question of whether they will go bad but when, it seems. I have five of the 50w AC heaters and have had no problems so far, but I keep my eye on them. Chinese products can be dicey, as some manufacturers have been found to be cutting sneaky QC corners and misrepresenting product performance. I buy from Cory more than anyone else, and will continue to do so. His transparency is something I want to support.

My only gripe with this as I found out in March, is that the Co2 regulators were pulled period!!! I would've preferred to not search the whole blasted website for one, because I wasn't aware they were pulled and the expansion modules were still being sold. So I got pretty much the same answer after emailing them about it 🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️

The mini USB pumps were a great idea but they were kinda a drop-ship product. You can get them everywhere now. Of the two that I bought, one died and the other is kinda loud/ticky. I still like Corey's approach to the hobby and spreading it out and keeping people in it, rather than just making a moderate group of repeat customers.

Time to clean that AC filter back there, Bentley. Lol. Nice tanks.

I have four of those heaters....one of mine failed and killed my whole tank. I woke up to a horrible chemical smell and everything was dead. The water smelled like burnt plastic/chemicals. Looks like a small piece of plant poked in thru the holes, which caused it....not to mention little snails got inside it and got burnt up. :( I took the other three out of my tanks.

I bought an aquarium coop co2 regulator and it failed. They refunded the money immediately. I continue to buy from them and make a point to go into their shop when I’m in town. I can’t wait to see the changes.

I’m sure the maker only tests that they heat.

I appreciate the transparency. And from a business standpoint i understand the decision. But I'm kind of ocd and want all my equipment to be the same. So now I bought 10 new heaters for my tanks. And will be buying a couple more co2 regulators. I just decided I won't purchase any of their new products for at least a year after they are released. To make sure they don't end up over the 5% failure rate.

I had 3 bad Co-Op Co2 regulators in a row. Refunded after 3rd. Amazing customer service and satisfaction.

This is both really bad and kinda good. it is cool that aquarium co op let everyone know but it is terrible that this was even an issue in the first place

I’m still using a 30 year old Whisper Diatomagic filter for photography. It’s the age ole saying of they don’t build them like they used to.

Ya, I had the same issue. Dcd because of a high failure rate.

So of all the FREEBIE hob filters you have reviewed what do you recommend

I think it's a good thing that they discontinue a product that has such a high failure rate. The negative here is, of course, that failure can result in dead fish. So, 5% is kind of high. Testing procedures might have to be changed. Chinese products tend to be cheaply made in my experience. That being said, I have three Coop pumps that have been working for quite a while and have kept going through at least 5 blackouts.

I love those heaters, I'm totally bummed out

First I'd like to thank you Bently for bringing this up. In the past I have been a lover of most of Aquariumn Coop products. But to be honest, Cory is a business man and is heavily guided by profit, as a business man should be. I have never liked the fact that he turns to the chinese manufacturing for many reasons. Dont get me wrong, from a business standpoint, you want the lowest cost possible. One can argue Cory is trying to bring affordable products to fish keepers. Thats great but for me quality is of upmost importance. For some products like something vital to the health or lives of my pets I am willing to pay a little more to get quality. I have had issues as well. The usb nano air pumps from the coop have not been great for me. To be fare, coop has replaced one for me and I found them great to deal with warranty issues. I have also had more than one fail and dispite the great service its just something i dont want to deal with. I might as well just buy the chinese branded one as i have an expectation of it failing, I expect more from the coop than just a longer cord. I am in Canada so despite the great warranty its just a hassle to get coop products and the coop dealers in Canada have prices so high it doesnt make sense for me to buy them when I'm not getting the quality. Other than this issue, I have found Cory to have opinions that definitly affect his ability to be non bias. Has anyone seen his review of oase biomaster? You can see easily Cory's dislike for oase or canister filters in general. To watch him try to open the precleaner whithout first closing off the water in/outlet is maddening. Then, to remove the cover from the precleaner sponges its a big hassle to press in the two tabs to get it off when a simplely giving it a little twist and it comes easily off. Again, to be fair, I have seen others do the same. The issue for me is I expect more from Cory and the coop than i do from some other you tuber. The bottom line is, through the progression of my fish keeping hobby, up to 12 aquariums in my home, I had started to blindly trust Cory and the coop and am finding this trust misplaced. You might say I'm getting "salty". Pun intended as I am getting into the salt side of the hobby, no coop products for reefing. It seams i am getting the same chinese manufactured crap in a green box. I want and need better! I commend the coop for removing the products that have proven to be substandard but believe they could have been more focussed on quality from the start given the coops precieved reputation in the hobby.

We don’t get aquarium co-op products here in Australia, so I’m not talking about them. However I have had a number of internationally recognised aquarium heater brands fail on me. Dropping temp is not as bad as cooking a tank overnight & frying all of the poor fish. After the frying heater failure I researched my options & purchased an InkBird Wifi Temperature Controller. I’m not endorsing this product it’s just the one I have purchased for my tanks. I have read extensively on heater failures & it appears to be a common occurrence. So now I have the peace of mind that I have a device that monitors the temperature & alerts me when the parameters I set are not met. Heaters fail

My first heater died in 12 month They replaced it but the digital display messed up on the replacement after 4 months

I respect their up front attitude about problems. I wish that was the same for all other aquarium equipment sellers but it's not. You can try to protect against everything but stuff gets through sometimes.

We had a client who had stainless steel pots and pans made in China. The prototypes and the first couple of containers were per spec. However subsequent shipments were junk, I mean lose handle rivets, warped pans...The client flew to China and found out the original mfg was no longer mfg his product but subbed out the job to a bunch of morons. Moved the who line to another mfg. Rinse & repeat. Pretty much the norm over there.

Unfortunately there's very little pride taken in manufacturing these days. I thought hygger was a good brand name until i recently replaced my fluval lights with their new line of smart lights (HG028) out of 4, 2 had a strange behaviour of turning pink when increasing Brightness from low to high. I went back and forth with them and being a repair tech decided to void my warranty and repair them myself. The fault ended up being from the LED drivers used on the green channel (must have been a bad batch as both lights had the same fault on the green channel). I repaired the lights but the real issue was the assembly qaulity inside the lights. I have 5 in total 4 of the 3 foot and 1 of the 4 foot, all had crushed wires with bare conductors exposed due to poor assembly practices resulting in the wires being crushed against the aluminium frame when the ends are screwed on. This would have led to premature failure of the lights or power supplys and explained why they gave off a strange sensation when brushing my arm against them with my hand in the tank.

Regarding heaters, I have not used them in decades. I think that they are too risky. My livebearers, Corydoras, wood cats, and gouramis do fine at room temperature. The livebearers, Corydoras, and wood cats breed like rabbits. I have not tried to breed gouramis. Regarding my experience with an Aquarium Co-Op products, I have only ordered two Easy Planters. Within a week the paint started flaking off leaving bright white areas. I called their customer service and they offered to refund or send out replacements. I opted to receive replacements. The new planters also had paint problems but not as bad. After a time algae covered up the white spots and the fake rocks looked fine. The long and short of it is that I am not impressed with the product but the customer service was great. Aquarium Co-Op is a good company and I have been impressed with Cory's leadership.

I like aquarium co-op bought a lot of products from them 3 co2 regulators one went bad and they tried to troubleshoot it with me to fix it but it was defective. They sent me a new one and that one was also bad then they sent me a replacement for that one which was great it worked and then Christmas morning last year I came down to all my rainbow fish dead in my 125 I noticed the hose blew of the defuser and my 5 lbs tank emptied into my tank killing 30 fish.. so I've experienced some defective products .

Honestly with aquarium co op I think they are doing the right thing. I had a hygar nano air pump crap out on me in a few months. Returned it. Happened again. They still sell the same model. If aqurium co op was shooting for planned obsolescence they wouldn't be leaning so heavily into sponge filters which are essentially impossible to screw up . Fluval however.... my aquaclear 70s of late have been far far less reliable than my old aquaclears from the 2000s before they got bought out. If I still had my 2002 AC 70 I can assure it would still be going strong despite having to replace the motor twice on my 2021 AC 70.

hey bently, 2 things, had a marineland 75 came with a 75 gal aquarium, i bought in 2000. it died in 2022. the tank leaked in 2020. i guess that's a good run. never replaced, wife said "NO" need i say more. thirdly i have followed cory since he just had the store with 2 employees. he always stressed quality. if it fell short of his standard then it was not sold. for a small operation that is how he can compete and thrive. hope that answered your question. good talk. stay well

I have had my Coop heater since Dec 2023 .Mine is a 50 wat.I replaced a preset Fluval heater that didn't need to be replaced .In short I had a thermometer issue not a heater issue. If my Coop heater fails I have the Fluval ready to go. I think that Aquarium Co-op integrity is a rarity in business and because they have professional integrity I will continue to do business with them.

Looks like they pulled their USB powered Air pumps also. I had got one and it had usb C connector, and it was running well. So I order 4 more for some other tanks, since they where so quite and they came with type A connectors. Was confused why it changed. I had one fail recently fail after about a 8 months. I think it was do to the dual USB A connector I bought and not the pump. But they are no longer on the site also. I found them on amazon from different company 2 for the price, the CO-OP was charging. But the reviews suggested over 5% failure rate.

My heater failed after about 4.5 months, I bought another and it failed after under 6 months. It sucks because the features are really nice compared to most heaters, especially in that price range. And both heaters were not pushed hard at all

Qualty control or bad design....maybe both? My concern over the design from the beginning was snails and debris causing issues. The outer casing allowing water flow is a good idea in theory, but real life application seemed to me was just going to cause problems. One more thing to take apart and clean...or in all honesty put off and forget about. 🤔🙄 Had I been new to the hobby, I would have bought into it without thought, just like I did with the Coop's sponge filters. Again, a sponge design that in theory sounded great...less cleaning! Until you lift them even the slightest and half of 3 months or more of gunk floods your tank. Tried the bag method....Has anyone besides me tried to stick a plastic bag in an aquarium full of guppies in an attempt to "capture the debris the filter is suppose to hold on to to begin with? It was ridiculous!! Lol. Almost as ridiculious as how long it took me to actually consider why I wasnt offended by that suggested "fix" to begin with. I will keep the bases in hopes that one day Cory will have an "epiphany" that finer sponges may be "easier" to deal with or at the very least offer normal replacement sponges for those of us who want them.

I am not an Aquarium Co-op apologist by any means and I am actually having issues with another product of theirs right now. But I feel like to be fair we have to acknowledge the fact that a part of that 5(+)% failure rate is also user error and fraud. The Co-op does not require anyone to return an allegedly defective product. People are people...some good and some not so good so they are an easy company to take advantage of. I spent many years as a QA/SO in the military and I learned back then that everything is not always what it seems. I hope i'm wrong but I think we will see at least the current version of the air pump go away soon. I bought 3 from the Co-op and 4 from a retail partner store all in a sub 1 year time frame. Out of 7 pumps 3 have gone out completely and 1 is so loud that I consider it intolerable for use in the home. I contacted the Co-op about the 1st dead one and they took care of it. The next day the 2nd went out and then 2 days later the third became so loud I stopped using it. I'm sure they will warranty the other 2 as well if I choose to report them. Even though they are a multi million dollar company I still feel bad for them as I truly believe they go above and beyond on both product testing and definitely on customer service.

JUST junk. 1 co2 unit, and 1 air pump. I got them at the same time. One lasted till the first brown-out, one dumped a complet co2 tank in 2 days. I did not try to get them replaced because I do not have time to mess with this junk. Aquarium Co-Op never again ever.

As someone who doesn't (yet) have an aquarium, but has been absorbing as much info as I can before getting started, and as somone who lives within an hour's drive of their physical store and thus am highly likely to visit at some point - if anything, it makes me trust them more. If they stand behind their products, better or worse, than if something else failed, I'd know they'd still have my back. Did they say what the root cause was? Another possibility is the manufacturer. Some companies send out prototypes with the best materials and extensive testing, maybe even outsource the production of those prototypes, then they use cheaper materials and skimp on testing for mass manufacture. Or one of their suppliers could be doing the same. Not saying Cory picked bad suppliers, just that it's a thing that does happen.

I was all in with aquariumcoop but when the lights came out I noticed it looked a lot like my hygger light but about double the price. I had already gotten 3 heaters from the co-op. About 3 months ago i came home from work and seen fish dead and what was left struggling the temp on the heater said 75 but the thermometer I have in the tank said 87. I guess the thermostat in the heater went out. I seen that the co-op stopped selling the heater but didn't see why. I looked on KZfaq but couldn't find anything. After seeing how they basically rebranded the hygger light (I've see other heaters that look just like the co-op heaters but cheaper) the fact that the bbs eggs I got didn't do any better then the ones I get from Brine Shrimp Direct but are more expensive I think I'm going stay away from the hype. I still buy online from the co-op but now it's mostly Indian almond leaves, easy green and plants.

I had two for a week apart. They replaced them. Then I had 5 of them fail in the months after. I was given a store credit on all I purchased. I threw all but two away. If I ever have a failure I will use till I can get a new heater. A back up to my back up. For me I was getting hard water build up. It coated the interior tube. If I knocked it off they worked again. The important thing is they took great care of me to fix the problem I was having.

It’s a positive out of a negative situation. Aquarium Coop seems to be trying to do it right.

Hey Bentley, long time fan but haven’t commented in years. You helped me a lot getting into the hobby and now I run a fish store! Hope to open my own one day. I have a question, when was the last time you spoke directly to Cory?

I’ve been using the ACO 100 watt heater for a couple months without problem. Should I replace it before it fails?

Overall I'd say over all its good. Good chance it's a case of quality slip and yes Cory needs to figure out how to prevent it in new products going forward. However saying that the fact he and the co-op are so transparent is great and something I hope to see continue going forward.

I have moved away from heaters entirely for this very reason. It's changed which species of fish i keep obviously, but there are very cool fish out there that can be just fine at most people's room temps.

Same thing with the Co2 regulator

Most def a good thing they’re pulling it out and standing by their products

I had one of these little square heaters fail a few months ago. I returned home from a meeting and found Isaac, my Oscar’s tank, at 95 degrees F. I spent 3 hours bringing the temperature down so he didn’t cook. He’s been fine ever since.

You could make a heater more reliable but they would cost considerably more and no one would buy them.

If you have fish you care about spend the money on quality heaters period. You do get what you pay for. Also I replace heaters once every 12-18 months because they do fail. Another piece of advice is to invest in heater controllers. Your heater gets stuck on the controller will shut it off before it cooks your fish

I was pretty suspect about their CO2 regulators from the onset and mentioned that in your initial test of them. I have a CO2 regulator and it's pricer than the COOP regulator and it has a 10 year warranty, it's nice to laugh last after 5 years.

Honestly stayed away from these products as I saw this as a large possibility from watching his videos.The effort seemed there, but not the know how. Its much harder to test a product then people realize, and while they did a lot of testing, they didn't bring in people that know how to do it properly. Good news is i think this can be fixed, got to bring in proper testers and not just rely on family, friends and employees.The fact that this happened across multiple products points to this being a process issue. Even if this is bad manufacturing, the process should catch that

I know one of their partner stores had issues with the heater issues. He said that they had a return rate of around 20%. Some of these were brand new. Some of them were within the first 90 days. It's always good for people (Corey) to be noble and honest with what is going on. But it does leave a bad taste in the mouth of the partners. So there is that.

It’s good. I have a theory that the manufacturers probably find the issues but send the good ones first so it doesn’t get noticed by coop or other companies that they make stuff for. Like you said I’ve watched videos of Cory abusing the crap out of some lights.

I have 4 tanks all running co-op 100w heaters. I had 2 fail on me. The co-op replaced them right before they yanked them off the market. I trust the co-op and what they are doing. The 2 heaters that didn’t fail are still running strong. Ultimately heaters fail. The constant on and off with any electronic is bound to cause it to fail. Add water to mix and you increase the odds.

I liked the heaters, but do not forget to unplug them when water changing and do not set them up too close to strong water flow. Those seemed to be my problems. I do wish the co-op had spent the time tracking down the issues and fixing them if possible. I liked them.

Testing: if it was 5% failed out of the box, for sure that should get caught. But 5% failure rate in a year is a lot harder to catch. Sauce: have a lifetime of work directly in manufacturing. Long term failures are necessarily very hard to test adequately for, particularly in the case of an aquarium heater.

They gave me a refund because the 100w wasn’t strong enough for my 40 gal and they claimed it would do a 75gal

Aquarium coop products are the bog standard Chinese products already on the market rebranded as aquarium coop or just repackaged in their boxes. You can find coop products shipped directly from china with no tie to aquarium coop other than it’s the same Chinese manufactured products.

Honestly in sales is so unexpected, that when it happens it can be misinterpreted. I think it’s a good practice.

lost the co-op heater today.... lol

I had 2 fail. Aquarium co-op refunded me with no hassle. Amazing company!

Is this video Bentley applying for the Coop Quality Assurance Manager position?

Don't extenuate the bad, when there are so many FREE products that you have received but have never responded with honest reviews with anything more than a smiley face so as not to offend and possibly lose any future FREEBIES, can't wait for the smiley face